Moray and weather drown out Dyce

Flattering scoreline sees Dyce sunk in Elgin

With weather conditions replicating a south East Asian monsoon, the thought of a game of rugby did not bode well on the bus journey for Dyce as they travelled to meet Moray 2nds in Elgin.

With a team of mixed experience, Dyce put together a team with lots of players out of position due to the ever increasing injury list and players unavailable.

Following a very wet warm up and some much welcome late additions to the backs, Dyce set out to play to the conditions and looked to use the forwards to open gaps in the Moray defence. The defence from Dyce was initially tight with only a few missed tackles; however Moray’s strength on the wings led to a converted try from the home team, quickly followed by a penalty conversion. Dyce continued to show resolve and passion backing themselves from behind a very unstable scrum with pick-ups from the no.8 Craig Philip catching the Moray pack and scrum half unaware. Supporting runs from the Dyce Scrum half Andrew Clarke, and good linking play made for exciting and promising periods of play where Dyce exerted some much needed pressure on Moray. Plenty of handling errors in the first half from Moray gave Dyce opportunities to attack, where upon the visitors’ surrendered possession getting turned over at set pieces.

Promising phases of play from Dyce exerted further pressure on the Moray men. A clearing kick from inside the Dyce 22’ from fly half and Captain David Hay was chased hard by winger Jack Gray who made his tackle on the Moray covering player forcing him to spill the ball; the turnover was almost capitalised on by the opposite Dyce winger who was unable to sprint clear due to the standing water.

A Moray try after half an hour, and again on the stroke of half time saw Moray enter the break with a 20 point lead, although Dyce confidence remained high showing signs of improvement after gameweeks 1 & 2.

HT Moray 2nd XV 20-0 Dyce RFC

The 2nd half saw the sun come out and the flow of game picked up with attacks from both sides. With Dyce defending heavily immediately after the break, tracking tackles from Dyce Centres Scott Brown and Rob Haden and low driving hits from Jack Gray certainly had an impact in slowing the Moray back’s attacking game. After sustained pressure from defending on a heavy pitch, Dyce tired quickly which saw Moray run in several quick tries. The visitors’ did not let heads drop though and stuck through to the end, with plenty of positives and a score line which flattered the hosts.

FT Moray 2nd XV 60-0 Dyce RFC

Dyce look to build on this weekend’s momentum and improvement with a local derby game next weekend against Aberdeen Wanderers 2nd XV. A special thanks to the Fraserburgh lads for helping out when their own game was cancelled.

MOTM was Jack Gray
DOTD was Craig Philip